Thread of the Day: Will a Turbo Fix the Hyundai Veloster?

Some either hate or love the quirky three-door Hyundai Veloster, which on the outside, embodies most of what a hot hatch should be, with its bulging fenders and its fast-back roof. But with only 138 hp and 123 lb-ft of torque motivating its front wheels, “hot” is taken out of the equation.

Nevertheless, the Veloster has been selling rather well, with 838 units sold within the first two weeks it went on sale in mid-September, and almost 10,000 sold in 2011, which isn’t bad (at all) for an unusual vehicle that went on sale late into the year. Packed with an abundance of infotainment features like BlueLink voice text messaging system and Pandora, the Veloster’s lack of speed is where it previously fell short. But with the recently-unveiled 2013 Veloster Turbo in the pipeline, do you think this will help “fix” the three-door coupe? Will the bump up to 201-hp and 195 lb-ft or torque (and a few cosmetic enhancements) get your swing vote? Let us know in the comments below.Thanks to Tonavi for today’s Thread of the Day!

The Hyundai Veloster Turbo is one of the stupidest cars ever made by man. The front of the car looks like a vacuum cleaner. And from the side the car looks even worse, like a fat mouse. Also, it has three doors. And to top it off, the steering and overall ride sucks. Who would seriously buy that car? I can't wait to see the suckers on the road lol.

you claim you want a good car and quality, but wont cough up the cash, you get a poop quality "me-too" car and wonder why you get cracked at. no, features and shiny paint is not quality, for gods sake
every car gets old, hyundai/kia are trying so hard to make a new image by copying other manufactures and pushing money out the wahoo for marketing funded by korean government "nation-branding", the genesis will become the same car after a couple years as well, your logic is flawed

Some of you on this website are a joke.....First you hate on the Genesis coupe (which is a very good car for 2013) and now the same s*** with the turbo Veloster. Obvious that even if they put out a 400 hp AWD coupe you would say "its still a Hyundai" and it sucks and its a fail. Tell you what ...stick with your Stangs and retro snot. Some of us appreciate a good car and a car company that is doing its damdest to give us some new sports/GT cars to drive...unlike Honda which has lost its edge completely...or a dated 370Z that is the same car it was five years ago.

I have a 2011 Veloster, unfortunately I bought it with the DCT, possibly the world's worst double-clutch tranny. Slow to shift and prone to take forever to unwind after a WOT sprint. My previous ride, a 2007 VW GTI with the Audi/VW DSG, is what a dual-clutch ought to be. Eight millisecond upshifts with 500 millisecond downshifts (and throttle blip). Hyundai should have licensed the VW box instead of rolling their own. The rest of the car is very well-done, although the handling is not up to par.
After less than 6000 miles, I have pre-ordered a Subaru BRZ with the AISIN 6-speed automatic. Not a dual-clutch but clearly the next best thing as it will shift 26 with a locked converter.
That said, I believe the Veloster Turbo will be a much better car, way more suited to its image. The fact that the Turbo will be offered with a standard torque converter automatic is a tacit admission by Hyundai that the DCT is junk, their reasoning that the DCT isn't strong enough to handle the turbo notwithstanding.
There is a lot to like about the Veloster and the Turbo's proposed suspension changes along with revised power steering calibration will correct the marginal handling. My BRZ is due sometime in May but I might possibly drop the pre-order and wait for a Veloster Turbo. OTOH, ever since I sold my Miata, I have wished for a small, lightweight rear-driver.

I loved the original Veloster from the concept to the production product, but figured I wait and grab the turbo when it came out just for schitz and giggles.
Absolutely not! This front end design iteration is a revolting and repulsive morphing of some sick - bizarre cross breeding between the new Ford focus, Audi and a 20,000 BTU Carrier air conditioner.

If it wasn't for the Golf,you wouldn't havethis car in market. The fact that the Golf..even with its low US sales,keeps the segment alive so that cars like this can be made to challenge it. Good luck with that though, the original is always a classic. The copies..well.. they are just Hyundais and Hondas.

Are you high,blind or just really stupid? On looks alone,not to mention reliability and value, the Hyundai is in a different class than the Sonic. Hell..I'd rather own one of these than any of the crap Government Motors puts out. A turbo can only make it sweeter. Now, go back to smoking Marlboros,not bathing,and drinking malt liquor,like so many other GM fanboys.

look up "2013 hyundai veloster turbo sound check" - (youtube). the car burns rubber in forward or reverse if you just want to drift. the fifth gear should take you to 150 or 160 mph but the vid ends after 120 mph. keep hating it- to keep the price down.

Hyundai has done it again. They will slowly force GM out of north america with this model and into bankruptcy. Hyundai will purchase GM and change the name to Saab. Then GM will actually produce quality products.
GM an amurikan revulsion.
Buy Ford, buy Chrysler.

Dude, you need to keep up with automotive world. much of the smaller vehicle design and tuning comes from German facilities/engineers. business model for Hyundai/KIA is to design/manufacture where they sell their vehicles.

It certainly becomes a more interesting option. A lot of people may not necessarily want breakneck speed, but they still want more than 130hp in their car before they consider it. This should be quick enough and fun, assuming the dual clutch transmission is programmed for fun (at least in sport mode) and the rest of the car's dynamics hold up.

..a transplant with an Aston-Martin DB V-12 couldnt fix this morphadite...
what a fugly car! This was someone's brain-fart at Hyundai that'll come back to bite em.
Falls into a catagory that doesnt exist; (compact erzitz')

dude i own a veloster and i am 6'1 ... i have plenty of headroom and legroom...
how far did you bring your seat up ... you must be one tall asian dude bringing the seat up all the way flying off the windshield.

Any GTI or TDI Golf is a better car than ANY fwd Hyundai. I'm still impressed with the progress Hyundai has made, but get real. A Golf is a German engineered driver's car, a fwd Hyundai is a Korean designed driving appliance.

its wrong wheel drive you can slap a GT42R on it running 40psi and it is still a useless front wheel drive car, no enthusiast could ever take this seriously.... you want a hyundai for a real car guy/girl you buy the 2.0T genesis coupe(V6 is less balanced and way harder to make a decent amount of power)

No! You can rule this vehicle out for anybody over 6' turbo or not.
I had a chance to sit behind one of these at the LA auto show. Its a tight fit for a 6' person with long legs. I.E. Me. My knees barely clear the steering wheel and my head barely clears the roof.
I cant imagine how cramped it would feel for somebody that's even taller than me.
I don't see how a turbo would fix that. Maybe MT can wave around their influence and encourage Krafcik to install lower seats for the 2013 model year to attract a slightly taller crowd.

A turbo would certainly help the Veloster, but it wouldn't entirely fix it. The Veloster that I drove a couple months back needed MUCH better clutch feel/feedback and a revised suspension that didn't ride so harshly given its only decent handling.

I like the new front grill. It's the rear they need to fix. I think it's good that the grill is very different in the turbo vs the base. The performance of the base car is a joke. I think more exterior changes to create a different profile will make the Turbo's image better. Otherwise you'd be driving a Turbo and everyone would think u're in a base car. It's a similar problem with the Genesis Coupe. When you see the Genesis Coupe on the street, you just kinda assume it's some weak 2.0T base model driven by a poor college student. VW somehow gets it right. You can tell right away whether it's an auto enthusiast driving a GTI vs a college kid driving a Golf.

The turbo is a step up but it still needs a more powerful offering. The base should be 170hp and the range topper should be 250hp. This is quite simple considering Hyundai has engines producing these numbers already.

Performance wise, yes, but there's still some work to do on the styling, and in fact, as ugly as the regular Veloster's nose is, the mug on the turbo is even worse !! Still, more power is always welcome, so Hyundai has done us all a favor by giving their chukka boot hatch enough power to get out of the way of the rest of us !!